NH #176: USS Reagan Sailors’ Lawsuit v. TEPCO Clears Judicial Hurdle, Expands!

INTERVIEW:

Attorneys for the USS Reagan sailors hit by Fukushima radiation won big in court last week: Judge Janis Sammartino ruled that the $1 billion lawsuit against TEPCO for health damages and medical treatment CAN not only move forward, it adds as defendants General Electric, EBASCO, Toshiba and Hitachi – the companies that designed and built the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors.  Nuclear Hotseat talks with attorneys Paul Garner and Charles Bonner.

At USS Reagan hearing August 25, 2014: (l to r) Nuclear Hotseat's Libbe HaLevy; attorney Charles Bonner; Summer Simmons; USS Reagan sailor (retired) Steve Simmons; attorney Paul Garner
At USS Reagan hearing August 25, 2014: (l to r) Nuclear Hotseat’s Libbe HaLevy; attorney Charles Bonner; Summer Simmons; USS Reagan sailor (retired) Steve Simmons; attorney Paul Garner


NUMNUTZ OF THE WEEK: 

What does the calendar have to do with whether nuclear waste cleared from Fukushima Prefecture’s schools can be disposed of as… well, nuclear waste?

Radwaste from Fukushima schools can't be disposed of as... well, radwaste!
Radwaste from Fukushima schools can’t be disposed of as… well, radwaste!

PLUS:

  • Fukushima doctors threatened w/loss of right to practice if they tell patients their illnesses are in any way related to radiation;
  • TEPCO‘s obscene first-half profits don’t stop the company from dunning Fukushima students who left evacuation for college;
  • Radioactive Tyvek protective suits equal to the contents of 70 25-meter swimming pools piling up at Fukushima:
Mountain of radioactive used Tyvek protective suits at Fukushima - all dressed down and nowhere to go
Mountain of radioactive used Tyvek protective suits at Fukushima – all dressed down and nowhere to go!
  • Lawsuits!  9 enviro groups, NRDC challenge NRC’s “extended waste storage rule;” 3 states (NY, VT, CT) launch legal challenge to same NRC ruling; and lawsuit filed by 3 northwest enviro groups over water pollution caused by Columbia Generating Station on Hanford site in Washington state.
  • 40 civil society organizations from eight countries challenge conclusions of United Nation’s UNSCEAR report on radiation exposure after Fukushima;
  • Radiation exposure linked to aggressive thyroid cancers in new international study; CLICK HERE.